Review: The Imposs!ble Fortune ( Thursday Murder Mysteries #5) by Richard Osman
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The unmissable new mystery in the Thursday Murder Club series from bestselling author Richard Osman, now streaming on Netflix
Who’s got time to think about murder when there’s a wedding to plan?
It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favorite criminal.
But when Elizabeth meets Nick, a wedding guest asking for her help, she finds the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. And when Nick disappears without a trace, his cagey business partner becomes the gang’s next stop. It seems the duo have something valuable—something worth killing for.
Joyce’s daughter, Joanna, jumps into the fray to help the gang as they seek answers: Has someone kidnapped Nick? And what’s this uncrackable code they keep hearing about? Plunged back into action once more, can the four friends solve the puzzle and a murder in time?
Dear Richard Osman,
I really missed Elisabeth and Joyce and Ron and Ibrahim – these four became some of my favorite fictional amateur detectives ever. I one clicked as soon as I saw book five on Amazon.
I think a year or so actually passed after the events of the last book. I am not quite sure, because to me the blurb is not quite clear on whether a quiet year had passed or not, but it sounded like that. Elisabeth is still grieving her husband Steven and her friends are trying to both give her space and be there for her and of course they are living their own lives too.
I really do like how this series mixes the humor and melancholy so well – the last book of course had a lot of melancholy for the obvious reason and it fit well. I was glad that the humor became a bit more visible again in this one, but our characters have to deal with getting older and they do not know how much they have left and neither do the readers.
As readers of the series know, it is written mostly third person past limited POV and we get to be in all four main characters heads’ and even in some secondary ones. From Joyce we also get some first person past moments and I often find those the most entertaining.
“The official line is that Ron’s daughter, Suzi, is away at a friend’s, and that Tia is the daughter of one of Connie’s old schoolmates, and needs a place to stay while her accommodation in Brighton has some building work done. The woman on TV has just said she won’t sell the vase, and I believe her about as much as I believe those two stories.”
Honestly. though. I was highlighting so much on my Kindle. I smiled and giggled and wanted to hug many characters and hope they will get to live for many more years in this fictional universe investigating the cases that land on their laps and strengthening the bonds of their friendship.
I loved how Elisabeth, in this book, realized that even though she may not have figured out everything, because her brain was a bit rusty, others picked up the slack and that she was the part of the team now :). I hoped she knew that she was part of the team for a long time now, but better late than never I think.
For some reason I really loved the parts of the book where Joyce’s daughter was involved, something about her ever developing relationship with her mum struck a cord with me.
Oh, and what about the investigation? I enjoyed it a lot, and blurb gives a nice set up, but for fear of spoilers I should probably not be talking much. It was tied into a *very* neat bow, but I won’t be complaining about a book giving me a good ending, at least there is some certainty in the fictional world.
Grade: A
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One day I *will* read this series.
My reaction was the same as yours, Sirius. These characters must outlive me, that’s all I know. They make the world better. Thanks for your review.
@Jayne: You have my support on this :).@Darlynne: Thanks for commenting, I love these books .